Kirkpatrick Sale is a leader of the Neo-Luddites. Wired's Kevin Kelly wrote the book on neo-biological technology. Food fight, anyone?

By Kevin Kelly

Interview with the Luddite
Kirkpatrick Sale is a leader of the Neo-Luddites. Wired's Kevin Kelly
wrote the book on neo-biological technology. Food fight, anyone?

By Kevin Kelly

Kelly: Other than arson and a lot of vandalism, what did the Luddites
accomplish in the long run?

Sale: The Luddites raised what was called at the time "the machinery question,"
and they raised it in such a forceful way that it could not ever go away:
Whether machinery was simply to be for greater production by the
industrialists, regardless of its consequences, or whether the people who were
affected by these machines had some say in the matter of how they were to be
used. The Luddites also established themselves as the symbol of those who
resist the new technologies and demand a voice in how they are to be used.

Kelly: Were they able in any way to alter the course of the Industrial
Revolution?

Sale: To some extent they were able to delay the adoption of machines in some
of the textile branches. Although there were some regional effects of the
Luddites, in general they failed to make any real impact on the rush of
technology and industrialism.

Kelly: Do you consider yourself a modern-day Luddite?

Sale: I do, in the sense that we modern-day Luddites are not, or at least not
yet, taking up the sledgehammer and the torch and gun to resist the new
machinery, but rather taking up the book and the lecture and organizing people
to raise these issues. Most of the people who would today call themselves
Luddites confine their resistance, so far at any rate, to a kind of
intellectual and political resistance.

Kelly: Yet you did smash a computer recently, right?

Sale: I did.

Kelly: I hope it made you feel better.

Sale: It was astonishing how good it made me feel! I cannot explain it to you.
I was on the stage of New York City's Town Hall with an audience of 1,500
people. I was behind a lectern, and in front of the lectern was this computer.
And I gave a very short, minute-and-a-half description of what was wrong with
the technosphere, how it was destroying the biosphere. And then I walked over
and I got this very powerful sledgehammer and smashed the screen with one blow
and smashed the keyboard with another blow. It felt wonderful. The sound it
made, the spewing of the undoubtedly poisonous insides into the spotlight, the
dust that hung in the air ... some in the audience applauded. I bowed and
returned to my chair.

Kelly: So, what did you accomplish?

Sale: It was a statement. At other forums, I attempt to discuss the importance
of understanding new technologies and what they are doing to us. But at that
moment, when I had only four minutes to talk, I thought this was a statement
better than anything else I could possibly say.

Kelly: Violence is very powerful, isn't it?

Sale: And remarkably satisfying when it is injurious to property, not people.

Kevin Kelly (kevin@wiredmag.com) is executive editor of Wired and author of Out of Control: The New Biology of Machines, Social Systems, and the Economic World (Addison-Wesley).